Steve Rabera and Jake and sALS they have their eye on the ball on Tucson
Sports Stage. Chef Fox Sports fourteen to fifty. Okay, welcome back to
I'm the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifteen. I'm Steve, He's Jay.
Now we have Ryan with breaking news. Still not working, Ryan,
I don't know what to tell you. I broke it. Yep, all
right, breaking news here on Iron of Ball. We're gonna start local with
you have a men's tennis Colden Smith continuing to do pretty well in the tournament.
He is down for the final four. Yep. Amazing in the individual
championship. Yeah, he beats twenty two, he's twenty s to twenty second
and he's in the final four now. And sweeter than anything is that he
beat an ACU guy today who had beaten him already. Yeah. And I
don't know if you've seen the video, but ac I was not very happy.
He threw his racket after after the final point. And I guess I
would be that upset too if I'd get one. If I'm seated higher too,
then I lose three, then I lose to an Arizona guy. I
think I'm throwing my racket too, So at least he didn't hurt anybody with
the racket. At least it didn't look like he threw it to where somebody
could get hurt. So well, it's a tough way to lose the match
to, you know, hitting it into the net right, and it would
look like an otherwise routine shot. Sorry, bummer for him. Let's over
to the Scottie Scheffler news that's been in the news for quite a bit,
so today Cup has been disciplined for not having his body cam on rights.
Go who's this officer? Gillis? Is that right? Does that name something?
But they let him go. That's what just on Twitter just tour golf
Wow by the LPG LPD lose Louis Police Departments, Louis. Yeah, what
looks like go ahead? I'm sorry no, So we we had some reservations
about I'm sure everybody had reservations about the whole incident right now that the video
kind of is proving people right, especially when when the guy is saying he's
carrying the officer and the car's going at a crawling pace. Yeah. Yeah,
and the video that they have, first of all, unless it happened
out of camera site. This cop didn't get dragged because he's he's reaching,
you know, the car stops, you see him reaching in. They pull
Scotty Cheffer out and he's immediately handcuffed. So you know, if he got
dragged by this by the car, it happened before the car gets into the
shot, so we don't know that. Then there's the whole thing about it.
He didn't have his body cam on, so he's disciplined for that.
There's no confrontation when they go in and and and you know, they tell
him to get out of the car. He gets out of the car to
the handcuff. So where the confrontation was that led to this cop getting hurt.
We don't know where that happened or quote unquote if that happened. So
let me it'sh Let me ask you if you want to answer. You don't
have to answer because your your brother is a copy. Your two brothers are
a cop. You've been talking to one more than the other about this.
I was gonna ask this what did he what did he think? Because he's
he he knows how they live their life. After we first talked about it
on the show, he texted me and he defended Scotty chef. Okay,
okay, he said the cop screwed this out. That's exactly what he did.
Okay. And then the second time you talked to him, you said,
the first time you talked to him, no, Well, the time
I talked to him about it, Okay, you didn't talk to him again,
now, okay, no, no, so that. But his comment
was if he hung onto the car and got dragged, that's on him.
You're not supposed to do that, right, You never hang on, you
never grab onto a moving car because all that's gonna happen is you're gonna get
hurt. You're not gonna stop the car by, you know, by by
hanging on to it. What are you doing? And by the looks of
it, it was not even going fast. It was crawling to a stop
pretty much, right, So I know there's there's more to happen. There's
you know, the internal investigation is continuing. Whether or not these charges even
hold up for for Scheffler where he's got to address him, or if they
just get dropped. A lot remains to be seen, you know again,
anymore, and we know this anymore in situations like this, there's always video,
always right, So you can't try and say something happened that didn't happen.
So it'll be interesting to see what the outcome of all of this is.
There's more to come on it, but the what what I guess what
I'm saying is the video that's come out is not showing a cop getting dressed.
Yeah. Well, like I said, reports for our at least on
Twitter, that he's been let go. He was he was suspended or whatever
he was earlier or reprimanded or whatever the word you used, and now it
looks like he's been let go. Yeah, it was just like corrective action.
We'll see what happens with that. Moving over to the NBA, get
some news from the Cleveland Cavaliers. They have fired their coach, TV Bigger
Staff after five seasons. Cleveland was in the in the playoffs. Recently they
were knocked out by the Boston Celtics in five games. Yeah, that's interesting
because, like I told Jay H, we'll see what happens to Luke Walton
because he was one of the top assistants there. Yeah. So, and
Luke's one of my great guys. He's just a fantastic guy. We'll see
what happens. The thing is, Jay, if you're not if you're a
coaching, you're not saving your money because you go to eventually get fired,
right you know, Yeah, you got you gotta be prepared for that.
Sure, and it happens like all the time. Even he even took him
deep into the tournament, to the playoffs, and yeah, you gotta be
Yeah, you got to have some stuff put away too, you know,
know that you might have you might be out without a job for a year,
Josh Passner, Right, he hasn't gotten a job yet. Yeah,
I don't know. We've talked about. I think he's better off just staying
doing your money. You've made a bunch of money, hope, as you
said, you you know, you've You've you've set your lifestyle so that the
money lasts and you can do other stuff. And I'm sure he's doing well
doing what he's doing now on TV. But why why deal with the pressure
of doing that again, although I know he loves it, So yeah,
let's move to the University of Texas. Chris Delcante has been named the Athletic
Director of the Year by the Sports Business Journal. Yeah, and that was
an award that Desiree Reid Francois As, the Missouri Athletic Director, had been
nominated for and Uh and del Connie and their former Arizona A duh. Yeah,
wins the award. Not bad. Yeah, I know. He's done
some great stuff over there, raised a lot of money. He's a pain
in the neck. I know, I would tell him right now he's a
pain in the neck. But the good dude, the good dude. He's
from my neck of the woods. He's from Taos and the Taos area.
Oh really, I don't know. Yeah, we our families kind of know
each other from that. From that U he's you to the boy while has
always been. He's been that guy. He's been the guy you know.
Bert Kinerk loves him. Jim liven Good hired him up there in the Washington
State. He's one of those dudes. He's just one of those dudes.
You know. He's not around the higher ups. He's with us. He's
you know, like, hey, you got what's going on. He's one
of one of he's one of the most powerful guys athletic Texas, no question.
And he's done a great job bringing in some great people. Yeah yeah,
wow, okay, you were Bud. Yeah, Well, we're not
buds. Were friendly to each other, but you know what, your friends,
you give each other grief in a grief, you know, in a
hispanic grief way. You know what I'm saying. If you know what I'm
saying, I do y. You know, it's exactly what the hell you
up on the radio. ID a historic here this this past year. Let's
see national championship. Sorry, they won second second straight national championship in volleyball,
finished runners up in women's swimming and diving, men's tennis. Of course,
the football team went to the semi finals, almost made it to the
to the final game. I was kind of bowned about that, right,
Yeah, lead eight and women's basketball made the round of sixteen, and women's
soccer, women's tennis, and softball. There's a number one team in the
country. Softball, Yeah, there were the number one seed in the tournament.
Yeah. It's funny because we had Chuck Culpepper and bringing up the fans
right here think they're better than they are, and he says, well,
it's kind of like Texas acting like they won a few national titles and they've
only want to Yes, so you got that perspective. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, No, doubt. I mean yeah, I mean look again,
he's done a great job in Texas is a thing, so good for them.
Switching back over to the U of A, we talked a little bit
about the baseball team. The game last night. Women's are saying women's softball
softball right. They will start their super regional tomorrow night, still Water super
Regional Game one is tomorrow night. They take on Oklahoma State. Ye should
be fine. And they were again. They were at the They were at
the tennis match today because the Colton Smith's tennis that tennis matches was in still
Water, and so there's they were at that game again as well. Then
that was a really fun speaking of that's a really funny video of the a
SU football team. They were at the ASU baseball game this morning. Okay,
there's a really funny scene because a pop fly fall ball, pop fly
starts coming to it's not even in their area, and they scattered and they
scattered, they already put their hands over their heads and the somebody catch the
ball. That's pretty funny, but it would have been funny the receivers.
Somebody, what are you doing? Guys? Crazy? There were too.
You have a football a little bit of news. Former Ole miss running back
Kendrick Riscano he committed to Arizona. Didn't tell the guy from here go there.
One of the guys, the new Mexico guy who had transferred here then
went there to Mississippississippi. Just a trailer. You're just moving pieces around there.
It's like a chess board, right, but you make your move.
Okay, well I'm gonna make mine moving. Now you make your moving off
mine. And that's all that's going. These guys are just going in circles.
It seems like NBA Playoffs continues to night. Got the Pacers and Celtics
going for Game two at five pm. I say that, I say the
Celtics killing. That means they're not going to draft Kings canceled my bet.
I didn't. I didn't even look at it because it's going to be agree
with you. It's going to be a big number. Not worth the price
of stress. You're gonna do money line? Yeah, yeah, or even
close? But what is the line? Do we not? I think you
looked it up. I think it's gonna be about eight or nine tenth maybe
see spread is Celtics uh point five nine tense? I would give the points.
Uh, yeah, go ahead, I'm not listening to anything you say.
Do funny, Okay. We got a good game last night as well
in the playoffs between the Evericks and timber Wolves. The mass right, very
very close game. Uh, just a fun game to watch. It was
a good game that the Wolves had the They had the game pretty much till
the fourth and then that was kind of turned it round and yeah, pull
it off. They pulled it off, So good for them, all right,
Vince Golf, They they will start their they run at the title quest
in the n c w A Championships. I believe that's tomorrow tomorrow, right,
yeah, yeah, and you see Stanford won the women's overall. Yeah,
won the national championship. I'm shocked. I'm shocked. But Stanford being
good in the the country club sport champions God yeah yeah, they at Stanford
ended up pointing that. So there you go. Stuff football, right,
stuff football? The sport's not football, no, no basketball, no tennis
or golf. It's got Stanford. Who else Stanfford's good at it. Yeah,
but it's in cars bed. So that's we'll see how we'll see how
he's something does. It's a long tournament thing we talked about that it goes
like to the middle of next week. I don't know if you guys saw
this, but Bronnie James is attracting Dan wagers to be the number one number
one taking the drafts? Are you betting money to put Brinnie James to be
the number one? What's the what's the bet that he won't be? That's
never gonna happen. He's attracted the tickets to be selected. That's dead money.
That's just give me five bucks. That's give me five bucks. Give
me. Did you did you see that? The me yesterday I saw on
Facebook with one of my friends, one of the guys on the street,
walkers the street to the guys asking for money. Oh yeah, I dare
you to hit me with a quarter. He's cured of to hit me with
a quarter. That's how. That's how he's gonna kill money. That was
fast. Yeah, hit me with a dollar there? Yeah yo, the
one, the one, uh, the one that always stick with me.
And this was years and years when we first started seeing people people with signs.
He had a sign and said, oh screw it, I need a
beer. That was his sign, right, So that's it. What do
you got you haven't you have something? I have something? Go ahead,
our guy. One of the good guys, Kyle fog just wanted his third
straight Chinese Basketball Association Championship. The dude to do to the non description.
He can play basketball right. Yeah, He's won a lot of money,
He's built houses for people. He was named the CBA Finals MVP. Wow,
and still playing, still playing. He's four thirty five. Just one
of those guys you root for because he's such a good dude. Good dude.
Yeah, he was here at the end of Lowton. I think I
beginning a miller. Yeah, yeah, we'reun real quick. One last one.
Edwarder, who got his start here at the Airs on the Daily Star
became a prominent ESPN reporter, primarily doing football and covering the Cowboys, has
been let go at ESPN. Yeah, we hat of a job. It's
like that. It's a crazy This profession is tough. Yeah, you know,
you get you get some time in and the next thing you said,
well we're paying you too much. We got to get rid of you.
Yeah, that's what happens. All right, let's take our break. We're
going to come back. Ben Lurs the new swimming coach at Arizona will be
joining us. We'll talk. We'll find out all about him, or as
much as we can about him, in about a fifteen minute talk. So
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detels. Steve Rivera and Jayden Salez they have their eye on the ball on
Tucson Sports Big yet Fox Sports fourteen fifty streaming live. I mean, iHeartRadio
WAPs. Hey, welcome back to Iying the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen
fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. He's Jagan's aunt now on a home. We
have new swim coach at Arizona, Ben yours coach. How you doing.
Yeah, I'm great, I'm great. Thank you for for having me on.
You guys really appreciate it. Pleasure meeting you. Yeah, No,
great to have you on. Great to have you here for a story program.
Right now. It's your turn to take it over and return it back
to glory. Yeah, that's definitely the goal. Man. There's a lot
of work to be done, but you know, and there's also a yeah,
a pretty big legacy to live up to, so we gotta get to
work. When you think about that, and you know, it's let's say
it. I mean, you're here because it's been a while since Arizona has
has been you know what Arizona used to be as a swim program. But
you know, what's your approach? I mean, how do you how do
you deal with that? How's that? How do you? Yeah, how
do you work with that? In terms of I want to get there,
but I gotta I gotta do things this way, and you know, I'm
trying to get it. You know, how do you feel about taking going
with a program that's had a lot of glory but more recently has not.
Yeah, that's a great question. The the legacy of the program, as
you said, is so strong. You know, you got to believe,
like, hey, we've won over national championship here it can be done again.
And so you got to start from that place and then from there.
I believe it's a real yin and yang. You know, like you've got
to set expectations real high to play ball in that park. You know that
that's that's true. You've got to recruit the people who can score it n
T two A and UH, and you've got to prioritize and the scholarship money
in that space. On the flip side, you know, as you said,
we're not there right this minute, and so you've got to also have
an eye to development and finding those diamonds in the rough and making sure you're
taking care of the people you've got, because we've got some really good athletes
in the building right now, and you know, we've got to find ways
to help them succeed at higher levels. That's the como. It's got to
be both right. And you've done it very well in Vegas, you and
LV where you did very well, and now you're moving here and now all
of a sudden you're thrown into the Big Twelve. Your thoughts on that.
I love the space and the Big twelve presuming and diving right now, you
know, and a lot of the other conferences, ACC, SEC, Big
ten, particularly the battle lines are pretty firmly drawn. You know, you
could move into the ACC and you could do a great job. And it's
still going to be a while before you're going to beat Virginia women. It's
still going to be a while before you beat cow men, you know.
In the Big Twelve, though, with Texas moving out, it's a total
it's a total cauldron of competitiveness. You know. The space is wide open
for the programs that are gonna do it the best to rise to the top.
So that's exciting obviously. Arizona State men, I'm sure you guys know
they're a little bit of a juggernaut right now. They're spending national champs.
But uh, you know, they had a head coach departure and things are
very mixed up up there right now. And uh, you know we're gonna
we're gonna step into that big twelve space and try to own it as quickly
as we can. Okay, So when you when you you've been your what
cub just a couple of weeks, right or are you here yet? Less
of that? No, I'm uh, I'm in Las Vegas today. I've
got to go take my ten year old and the doctor to get his cast
off, and uh and I've got my high schooler graduating in a few days.
Uh, So you know, I'm bouncing back and forth right now.
And I've only been hired, you know, uh just a few days,
and I'll be making my way down of Tucson next week getting ready for Olympic
trials at the Arizona Wildcat. Okay, so let me ask you this one
it because I was going to say, what's the first thing you felt you
needed to do when you got here. So what is the first thing you
think you're going to need to do, you know, when you're here and
you're start to start to dig into this job. Well, I've got to
connect with all the athletes, both returners and incomers. You know, that's
number one. They are our people and they are who we work for,
and so that's got to take precedence. You know, I've had the privilege
to talk to every incomer, like all the incoming freshman class haven't yet met
in person with all the people who are training currently at u of A getting
ready for trials, but that's going to happen real soon. I was only
on on campus for a day this past week, and so I didn't have
the time to do that, but you know that that'll be next step.
So that's number one. Number two is making sure that I've got the right
staff and I need to move forward and so we're working real hard on that
space. And then number three is just playing simple, just a business,
you know, like the team needs clarity. It's like, hey, well
you know what's moving a week, Look like what's our mid seas and invite
you know, just real simple stuff, but you know, the families need
that, we got to do that. And then overarching all of this,
like simultaneous of all those three things I just mentioned, is of course recruit,
recruit, recruit. Yeah, I'm assuming that one of the appeals at
Arizona is one the place, the weather, all that, the program potential.
And your old boss is your new boss with Desiree. That's true.
Yeah, you know, working for Desiree is uh. She's a high expectation
leader, which I really appreciate. She definitely levels up every program she's a
part of, and so so I'm excited to be back under her leadership.
I told a story in the press conference earlier this week, so forgive me
if I'm repeating something. You do. You know, I had an alumni
stop by the office or stop by the pool back here at UNLV about a
week ago, just as soon as the announcement hit that I had been hired,
and so he came by to say goodbye. And he was a junior
and I took over this program eight years ago and a senior when Desiree was
leading ULV. And he said, man, that's so exciting. You get
to work for desre again, out of all the athletic directors I had,
she was my favorite. And I said, oh, that's I didn't know
you guys had a relationship. I said, tell me why. He says,
Well, every time I stopped by her office just to you know,
walking through the halls or whatever, she always immediately stopped what she was doing
and wanted to talk to me. He's like, that's the only athletic director
I ever had who operated that way. And I thought that was about as
good an endorsement as you can get for an athletic director. Absolutely, absolutely
so. About your time at you NLV, what what was the thing that
you thought that you did or the way you did that brought you the most,
maybe had the most to do with your success over there in how you
ran your program or whether it was recruiting or dealing with the athletes or whatever.
What was your best thing over there athlete development? Actually, you know
the metrics we posted here in terms of moving the needle from people as a
high school senior to a college senior, our numbers were off the charts,
Like in twenty twenty three, our women like broke the curve on that number
last year. I think this year in the men's space, like for example,
like that average improvement curve for a male collegiate swimmer is like two point
five percent across the country Division one, and I think the very best program
this year tipped in at four point eight percent improvement. We were four point
seven five, you know, so that was really all our hallmark. Like,
you know, whoever we get in, whether they're a blue chip recruit
or a diamond and the rough or you know, just to walk on,
who wants to be a part of something big. You know, we really
moved the needle with all those those demographics, and that's our hallmark. So
when you show up here and you were part of here for a day or
two at the most, was there anybody that you wanted to meet before you
before you get you know, left again, maybe a Candrea or you know,
Arizona has some coaches, Yeah, for sure do. I was really
blessed to meet a lot of the coaches. They came to the reception that
that the department kindly threw for me, So that was really cool. You
know. Coach Candrea was was out at the beginning of this week, so
I wasn't able to meet him in person, although you know, he's kind
of enough to shoot me a text, and I definitely look forward to connecting
with him. You know, one of my officemates like just down the hall
for me here, you know v was what was Christy? You know,
one of the Candres players like of six, O, seven, and eight
who's now in the Arizona Athletics Hall of Fame for softball, and so,
you know, I definitely look forward to meeting coach Candrea. But the you
know, the staff really and the support staff is what I really wanted to
meet with because that's so important that they know that they're critically like invested in
where the team is going to go, and without them, we can't do
anything. And I'm talking about Kendrick or academic advisor. I'm talking about Leanna
and Todd, our athletic trainers. I met with them talking about Day and
Ben, our strength and conditioning coaches. So I made sure to have time
to meet with all of them because it's not just about the swimming diving coaches.
That's that's important, but it's about the big web of Arizona Athletics support
staff that enable our student athletes to do what they do. We're talking to
Ben lures the new swimming and diving coach in Arizona, Ben Okay. So
there's a lot of things that go into making a successful program, whether it's
recruiting facilities, coaching staff, and all that type of stuff. You know,
there are there areas where Arizona stands out as far as that goes,
and then the areas where you know, you've got a lot of work to
do and what are some of those things that you've seen so far. Facilities
is a huge stand out. You know, to have an outdoor seventy meter
pool with a full ten meter diving tower, that's a pretty attractive thing to
a lot of a lot of the athlete, so that you can sell the
heck out of that, no question about it. You know, you can
get a lot of people from cold northern climbs who are just like they want
all in on that, you know. So I think the facility you can
sell a lot, certainly a legacy, you know, just a place of
Olympians, and I think you've got to operate from that podium. So you
know, that's something that's really hugely attractive in terms of what needs to be
better. You know, I'm not sure that I know just yet. I'm
sure there are some things, you know, like maybe it's some equipment here
or a support staff, you know, piece there. I'm not sure yet,
but that's part of taking over a program, as you figure out where
the weaknesses are and you turn those into strengths. And we're going to get
busy doing that. So coach, you're talking to two old dudes who have
been here a long time. A journalist, journalist by trade. We now
have a radio show, so we just be us on the show, but
I'm not gonna be us here. We talk about this specifically all the time
of you of a this year is have had a fantastic year from September to
now, so many sports doing really well, like the nineteen nineties. It
was kind of like the glory days. So no pressure, no pressure on
you guys to recover with this because I think that the program itself has has
kind of found its way finally and now it's moving to a conference. If
it can just hold, serve and do really well, the whole program can
be very very good, no doubt about it. You know. Billy Jean
King said pressure is a privilege, So you know, pressure is okay,
Like I feel like it's a privilege to coach here, and it's a privilege
to shoulder that pressure and see if we can see if we can make some
noise as well. Yeah, no doubt. So okay, so tell us
give us a little timeline for you. When you think you're gonna be down
here, people start seeing you around campus, you're moving your family. I'm
assuming you say you got a high school high school age, somebody graduating,
and you have a kid with a broken Army said, oh, yeah,
you know, I got four boys. Man, they were playing soccer dodge
ball on the trampoline. A great arms is what happens, you know,
So welcome to my world. But but yeah, I'll, like I said,
i'll be there end the next week. I think June one is my
official start day. And you know I'll be on campus and on deck those
two weeks early in June, leading up to Olympic Trials. I'll be traveling
with Arizona to US Olympic Trials. After that, I'll be back and then
uh, you know, just getting ready for the upcoming collegiate season. Uh,
you know, we'll see if we've got anybody going to to Paris,
of course, But you know, I don't personally plan to be in Paris
this summer. You know, I'll be here moving the family as they kind
of get into July and then and also getting the getting all the pieces in
place so we can hit the ground running when school starts. How does the
timing of you're hiring affect you as a coach in terms of transfer portals and
all that? Nil? Or does it not? Too much? So when
a new head coach departs or is hired, you've got a thirty day that
the portal opens for both those teams, the UNLV team and the Arizona team.
The portal will open for thirty days. We're in that window. Our
normal transfer portal window closed in like three weeks ago, so you know that
one's done. But but yeah, right now, you know, there doesn't
seem to be a lot of shifting, you know, the team that is
on the roster that I've had the privilege to call so far, like everybody
seems to be stick and put and I'm grateful for that. All right,
good for you? Okay, well, congratulations, welcome to the heat.
But Vegas. Vegas has the same eats exactly, so you're used to it.
I'm looking forward to Tucson here. I've heard it's a little bit better
monsoon season and a little bit cooler in the evening. So I'm all about
it. Yes, thanks coach. We'll say hello when we see you on
campus. Thanks guys, you coach new coach sounds a very good coach.
Yeah. Yeah, he's done a great job at r N l V.
I. You you can see why why, uh, Desiree went at went
after him. She's you know, a known commodity to her and trying to
get this program back to where it used to be. Well did you catch
this at the beginning. She's a high high Uh. I forget how you
put her as a demand not a demand but the results oriented r A D.
Right, you know she she wasn't win people. Yeah, you know
we focused on Michael. Are gonna have to you know, buckle up and
understand that. Uh you know, there's the standards are going to be very
high, right, continue to be very high, right, which is good
because like I said, and we know this year it kind of set the
bar right and it's it's think about it. I know we got to go.
But the year that they're having and in this year they got ready of
the athletic director. Yeah, right right. You know, I know there's
other issues that because of that, but they're having you know, the programs
are all you know, for the most part, in a good place,
and yet you know, they felt there was a change that needed to be
made. Kind of crazy, very crazy. All Right, we're gonna come
back. We've got our last segment of the week. So if you want
to give us a call talk about anything, We're not going to be here
tomorrow or Monday, so give us a call. Five two zero four one
six seventy four forty would be right back. If you're an Arizona men's basketball
fan, you know it's been successful for nearly forty years. Now take a
look back at the Loudolsen era. In my new book, Lessons from Loot,
it was a labor of love through the eyes of twenty five former players,
coaches, and friends to give insight to the coach and the man who
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twenty five years as Arizona's beloved coach. Lessons from Lut is an insight to
how he built the program into a national powerhouse. What one email me at
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live on the iHeartRadio app. This is Eye on the Ball with Steve Rivera
and Jay Gonzalez on Fox sportsporteen fifteen. Hey, welcome back to my on
the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve. He's Jay Ryan
with us. Ryan looks like you and me your finished this, samon off.
Jace checked out. He checked out. Think about it. He doesn't
realize he has to go back Tuesday. If you think I'm not here now,
wait until tuesday, you know. Just showing Steve a picture of our
of our Rocky Point place that we go to and we're right on the beach,
and it's like, okay, the I mean, it's it's all.
We don't leave until Wednesday, but I'm losing it already. Okay, anybody
want to call me five love to hear from you, Steve. What's going
on? So there was a really fun thing yesterday. I don't know if
you saw it. So there's all kinds of video of this on social media.
So at Dodger Stadium during you know, during the game, there's a
car on fire in the parking lot. It's just blazing, okay, I
mean it's just engulfed in flames. And the organist at Dodger Stadium starts playing
Billy Joel's song we didn't start the fire. And some people say some people
didn't think it was funny. Most everybody did. Somebody called it cold blooded.
You can see, yeah, over the you can see somebody shot video
and posted it. So somebody's like in the upper deck and you can see
the car in the parking line and it's I mean, it's blazing around it.
No, no, it was kind of like not in a parking spot.
It was sort of on the street of you know, one one of
the pathways of the of the of the parking lot, and and it's just
blazing and then the organist starts going, we didn't start the fire. It's
just funny. As did you see this one where it happens all the time
where one of the players gets a loose ball, pick it up, throws
it into the stands a little kid. The kid drops it and the old
guy gets that. Don't the parents or the old guys know that that's not
how it happens. That's not how it's supposed to be. And we're happy
to have them all. You just want to punch those guys. You're like,
are you just dumb? Yeah? And it's a baseball, a freaking
baseball. Give it to the little kid. I saw that. I'd like
to see if it you know, the video stops and it didn't say,
you know, did the guy ultimately give the ball to the kid, because
I sure hope he did right? Well, did you? There was one
the other day. I don't know if he saw it with I don't like
uh, what's his name, the Shambo. I don't like him. I
just think he's I feel like he's really arrogant to no. No, you're
you're thinking of John rom he's the pricing to Shamba. But he taught you
know. He's walking between home and he tosses the ball to a little kid
who doesn't catch it, and the guy picks it up and runs and the
shambles yells at him and get his butt back here. And he did come
back and he gave it to the kid. But you saw that. He
tossed it to the kid and he grabbed it and ran and he ran.
Well, like you said, it's a baseball, it's just a baseball,
it's just a golf ball. What's it going to be worth? Why I
even have it? And what's the point. Yeah, you know, he
signs it to you directly. Okay, what's the big deal. But these
kids get such a you know, a joy on that, and you're an
old guy sitting there and you're saying, I'm going to take that joy from
that kid and keep it for myself. I get really pissed when I when
I when I see those, It does happen a lot. It happens too
much. And I'm sure it happened a lot before cameras, because now we
see it because of the camera. Yeah, there's a great one, a
great video of U. It's a it's a Yankee game and there's a kid
with an Aaron Judge shirt on and Judge goes yard and this guy catches the
home run. It wasn't like the kid got it. He catches the home
run and then he gives it to the kid, you know, and the
kid starts balling right and he goes and he gives a guy a hug,
and you know it's just a moment, right, It's like that was so
easy to do. Why more people don't do that? He made the kids
not his day, He made his like millennium, right, and and it's
that's so easy to do. I could have kept the ball. It was
an Aaron Judge home run. I got it. But you know he knew
the kid. You know, the kid is sitting there with his glove and
the Judge jersey and stuff, and he's a couple of seats over and he
gives them the ball. Did you see the one? I don't know how
long ago this one. This is a Dodger Dodger one where the guy in
the outfield, he catches a home run, catches a home run. He
had a ball and oh yes, yes, in his pocket. So we
threw the ball from his bucket back into the and then moments later somebody texted
him we cut it off. Pretty funny. That's a good one. Love
the Dodger fans. Let's take this call. Hi, you're on the air
and I on the ball. Oh hey, hey guys, this is a
dog. How you doing good? Good? How are you? I was
actually checking. Hey, Steve good is talk to you again? Man?
I was just wondering. I thought you might be having Steve Kerr on today
that I miss We had him yesterday yesterday. Yeah, you gotta go to
the podcast I need d Yeah. Yeah, we put that posted on Twitter,
So go to our Twitter feed and you can find the pod. Oh,
that'd be great. I will check it out for sure. Since I
got you though, did you guys already talk about the implications for the baseball
game tonight? Yes? Yeah, so yeah, it doesn't matter what happens
tonight except for Oregon State? Is what you guys thought about the like,
some folks want us to tank it? Yeah, yeah, we can get
State out of the bracket. Have you already discussed that. I don't want
to. I don't want to see him tank it. But I don't blame
Chip Hale if he doesn't use any of his top pitchers the game that you
know, I mean, if they're doing it for that reason, I don't
care. But he's not. Look, Chip's not going to tank a game
on purpose. He's not going to like put all his scrubs in the game,
so that Oregon State, you know, is out. But I could
see him say I could, and I wouldn't blame him if he said,
I'm not pitching my any of my three starting pitchers, you know, I
you know I need them, I mean, or even if if he starts
Jackson can't maybe he's got a short le count, and then just start bringing
in bullpen guy, right, because you know what happens, you know what
always happens in that to me, you do that, you set up what
you want to get set up, and then you still get beat by somebody
else. It's not supposed to beat you, right, right, Yeah,
I mean cal is actually no picnic. They've been high, right, They've
they've been winning tons of games. So it's yeah, it's kind of like
watch what you wish for kind of thing, right, and watch out for
Stanford. Right, look at you look at what Stanford just dead. You
know they you know, they they beat you know, they beat a su
in Oregon State. All of a sudden, they're you know, they're in
the bracket against you. Watch out for Stanford. Yeah, but there was
a reason they're the nine seed that they came in losing ten in a row
into the tournament. So you'd still like to take your chances against them versus
you know, USC or ar State or COL. But yeah, I don't
know. I'm obviously I want you to win every game we have to play
in every and everything. Yeah, this is the one case where it's like,
if we do lose tonight, I'm not going to lose a ton of
sleep over it. But yeah, but here's the here's the thing I'll say.
Let me say it's real quick, Steve. You know Arizona doesn't want
to lose a game, right, They're still trying to host, and so
you know, there's that so they you know, they lose to COL.
It's kind of like even even if they win the whole thing, that would
give the committee a reason to not let them. Will say, well,
you, yeah, you won your tournament, but you lost to these guys.
So yeah, I mean Cal's a bubble team, so yeah. But
but it's true, and you you also just want to keep the winning mentality
from the momentum going and not and not show your guys that, you know,
we can just give up a game not care about it. So so
Doug, don't you know even if we try and even if we try to
win the game, Couch could still win tonight they're they're a decent team.
So yeah, Doug, don't have to see It'll be interesting to see how
they approach it. Don't leave right now because I'm gonna ask you about Uh,
Doug is one of the big basketball fans. I'll tell you who he
is later, but uh, uh tell me your thoughts on your thoughts on
Tommy Lloyd and what he's done three years, because I know you're close to
the program. Oh yeah, I mean I'm not close in terms of like
inside connections or anything, but I certainly bleed red and blue and follow it.
I mean, it's just kind of amazing, you know. Uh,
I will say, like every off season so far, we've all sort of
panicked. The roster looks depleted, everyone's transferred, everyone's going pro you know,
whether it's Mathren and Terry and Coloco or to Bellis and Cresa, you
know whoever it is. But he has proven now that he can reload,
and he can reload all three ways. He can reload from high school,
he can reload through transfers, he can reload internationally, and so just in
terms of putting a roster together, you've got a ton of confidence in terms
of what he does with it in terms of game management. You know,
I think the jury is still out in terms of winning the really big games.
You know, there's a lot of criticism that we weren't driving the ball
enough against Clemson, that kind of thing. You know, I still stand
behind the guy. I love him. In terms of his personality for Tucson.
I just think having that sort of transparent, fun loving you know,
let's go play pickle ball, let's go you know, have a drink at
rink on Market or whatever. I just think that's fun. That's fun to
have in the community. Yeah. Yeah, But as far as like getting
over the hump, I mean, Sean Miller never got over the hump and
he had his own style, and Tommy is a very different style and he
hasn't gotten over the hump. So it's hard to be for any of us
to be super satisfied with any coach until they do it there. And again,
he's only he's only been here three years. But it's only three years.
Yeah, when you look at Shayshevski or Dean Smith or you know,
Tom Izzo or some of these other guys Bill, so they didn't break through
right away either. So absolutely we need to be patient with that. Okay,
thanks, Doug. Appreciate it. Doug, thanks a bunch. I
appreciate it. Thank you. Man. Great call, Yeah, great call.
I'll tell you who he is out there. Yeah, that's really good,
A reasonable like mouthful guy. You know exactly how people should feel instead
of you know, I think we we don't have recruits. I think we
have more reasonable Honestly, I'm not trying to most smoke up, but but
we have more reasonable callers or listeners because they're older, they've seen more.
You're the most unreasonable one. You're inside the house. The Collins coming from
inside the house, right, help me out here. You know exactly what
I'm saying. You know exactly what I'm saying because they they've been through it
all they can know. And Doug's one of those guys. Doug is the
fate the face paint guys who carries the signs and runs around. Oh okay,
yeah yeah behind you. I know, I know who you're so.
He's a Rabbit fan. He's a good dude. I see him every now
and again. He's also the guy who carried the sign and vindicated. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I know, I know exactly who you're talking about.
So he has some depth to his comfort. It's not like permanently those
colors you wouldn't recognize them in the streets. But that's who he is.
That's too funny, you know what I mean, guys. You know,
guys, a legend of you know, Michaale. Yeah, yeah, he
runs around and around there for I mean, I mean you see him at
your at you know, out of town arenas and stuff like that. Let's
take this last call, Hire on the aar and eye on the ball after
you, guys, this is your buddy, Gabe. How you guys are
doing good? Gabe? You're calling it the last minute, so you got
about a minute, okay. Cool. I'm very happy that I got a
running back transfer for from Ole miss And I think it's very hilarious that Jaden
Aristauna is gonna sue Florida or not receiving thirteen point one million thirteen point one
million dollars. And it's gonna be really even more funny if if you know,
you know, my name is Jetfish, so you guys, so players
do not take some money unlike me. My name is Jetfish and I'm a
raking. Not's just don't be taking money, except except it was for me.
I'm jet fish. I'm the only one that matters. So I think
it's pretty funny if Florida doesn't hire him, or or or it does hire
him at Washington if Jeffish goes seven and six. So either way, Jeff
Jeffish is gonna get bitten in the apt Oh anyway, so thanks, you
just made it under the minute mark. You did. Thank you get good
to hear from you. Thanks about Dave gave Jame j came in he hadn't
heard from him. He gave. Yeah, he came in strong too,
with the dead fish and pressure. Love it, love it, love it,
love it. Well. In terms of fans calling in pragmatic, well,
there was the idea, all right, it's hey, it's been a
great week. Uh, you know, starting with you know at Orosburg Mike
Care on Monday. You know, having Cam dre in here is always a
great thing. Uh. Pete Williams and Jim live and good. I got
a lot of good response to you the live and good interview. People feeling
like, you know, there's a guy who you could just really really cared
and still cares about Arizona. You know, it's very cool and then of
course we had Steve Curry yesterday kind of on a uh, sort of a
surprise thing. We've been trying to get him and we thought we had him
lined up, and he was, you know, can I come on today?
And we said like great, of course we're not gonna tell Steve Curry
you can't come on, so you might not get him better. Hey,
so but he came on. If you want to hear that again, that
that's on, that's go to our either of our podcast page on iHeart uh
Apple Podcasts, or you can see it on on Steve's Facebook. You can
see it on our twitter feed. You can also get it on Spotify,
so you can go back and listen to that, like you can listen to
any of any of the podcasts we do. We do put them up.
So it's been a fun week. We're out of here, not here tomorrow,
not here on Monday. We'll be back on Tuesday, and then I'm
gone the rest of the week. After that. Steve will be running the
show. Don't call him sick on Tuesday. I'll be here on Tuesday.
Well, my body will be here on Tuesday. I can't promise what what
else will be here? Or not be here on Tuesday. Ryan, You'll
be here Tuesday, alrighty man, Hey, thanks to everybody. I hope
you have a great weekend. Be safe, be smart, and we'll see
you on Tuesday.